Blog

The Bionic Eye implant involves placing a chip the size of a pinhead on an area of the retina

Director Steven Cantor world premiered his three minute documentary film “The Bionic Eye” during our “Short Films, Big Ideas” screening at Tribeca Film Festival. The film documents the bionic eye technology pioneered by Dr. Joseph Rizzo and Prof. John Wyatt at The Boston Retinal Implant Project.

The experimental bionic eye reacts to light, sending an electronic signal that is picked up by the optic nerve and processed by the brain into an image. The treatment could partially restore the sight of thousands of sufferers of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which causes the photoreceptor cells at the back of the eye to deteriorate. As depicted in Cantor’s film, the surgery involves inserting a fine cable through the layers of the eyeball to place the chip on an area of the retina the size of a pinhead. The chip is connected to a power source implanted under the skin behind the ear.

Watch the film via the below link and then send your thoughts to Twitter with the hashtag #BIONICEYE.

Viewers who submit #BIONICEYE tweets will be featured on our dialogue panel which is shown beneath the film.